What was David O. Russell thinking? After all, if you want to enhance your resume in Hollywood, you’re supposed to flee justice after you drug, rape and sodomize a thirteen year-old child. Sorry, David, but groping a nineteen year-old transsexual just isn’t going to cut it. However, now that I think about it, you might score some points over the incest element. So, well done in that department.

You have to read this to believe it. Only in Hollywood:

Sounds like David O. Russell truly is flirting with disaster.

According to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun,  Russell’s transsexual, 19-year-old nephew, Nicholas Peloquin — the son of Russell’s adoptive sister, Barbara Jane Peloquin — alleges that “The Fighter” director inappropriately groped Peloquin during a super-awkward exchange at a Florida gym on Friday.

Somehow it gets better:

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Those corporate fat cats in Hollywood just got another tax break, courtesy of Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown.

Variety reports Brown signed a bill late Sunday, the legislation’s final day of eligibility, extending California’s film production incentive program for another year.

Assembly Bill 1069 will provide a one-year $100 million extension to California’s 3-year-old Film and Television Tax Credit Program. In its three-year history, the California program has allocated credits totaling $400 million and will allocate its final $100 million by next July.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, received a 77-1 approval in the Assembly in June when it provided for a five-year extension.

“I’d like to applaud Governor Brown’s leadership in signing AB 1069 today,” Fuentes said in a statement early Monday. “By creating tens of thousands of jobs and pumping billions into our economy, the film and television tax credit program has truly been a statewide economic stimulus package.”

A recent study by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. showed that the first two years of the program has generated $3.8 billion dollars in economic activity statewide, created more than 20,000 jobs and over $200 million dollars in tax revenues.

Sounds like those hygienically challenged Occupy Wall Street types have a new front in their battle against The Man and his fat cat friends.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of America’s most sacred freedoms and our public universities often among its staunchest defenders.  But at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UWS), it seems this sacred freedom is in the eye of the beholder.

UWS theater professor Dr. James Miller is relatively new to the short-lived, now cult hit TV series “Firefly.”  Some of his students are loyal fans and asked Dr. Miller to check it out for himself. He liked it enough to hang a Firefly poster on his office door. Given its remote location in the theater wing, where mostly only theater students would see it, who would have expected the poster to cause such a firestorm?

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reports:

On September 12, 2011, Professor Miller posted on his office door an image of Nathan Fillion in Joss Whedon’s sci-fi series Firefly and a line from an episode: “You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.” On September 16, UWS Chief of Police Lisa A. Walter notified Miller that she had removed the poster because it “refer[s] to killing.” After Miller replied, “respect my first amendment rights,” Walter wrote that “the poster can be interpreted as a threat.” Walter also threatened Miller with criminal charges: “If you choose to repost the article or something similar to it, it will be removed and you could face charges of disorderly conduct.”

In response to Walter’s censorship, Miller placed a new poster on his office door on the 16th. The poster read “Warning: Fascism” and mocked, “Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death. Keep fascism away from children and pets.”

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The Irish gentlemen, Jonathan Swift, once penned a scathing pamphlet in reaction to political and economical conditions in Ireland due to English policies. His satirical essay, “A Modest Proposal” reached outlandish proportions when he recommended that society make use of beggar and bastard children by eating them. It was a political and economical “solution.” Mothers would have incentive to care for their children and take a pass on abortions because of economic gain their children’s flesh would bring. Crime would go down because unwanted children would no longer roam the streets. Instead, they would be put to use by feeding the rich. Lastly, society as a whole would benefit from the emerging market.

The absurdity of his proposal was the point: “For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public as a part of the Martel-Harper Challenge.”

In Swift’s time, the average person in Ireland was poor and destitute, children were unwanted and a lot of pregnancies ended in barbaric abortions. Petty crime and thievery and moral decay was rampant due to the existing circumstances that forced children and adolescents to fend for themselves. The wealthy nobility languished over the sorry state of affairs, but only offered criticism and scorn for the savages instead of reform to help aid their condition.

[I]t is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for [the mothers] in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, [the children] shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands. … I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

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An old TV show called “Perry Mason” set the tone.  A taut three-act play which culminated each week with justice prevailing as the real guilty party to a crime (invariably murder), confessed tearfully on the stand during an incisive cross-exam by the intrepid Raymond Burr.  Grim, post-trial quips, cue that stirring theme, and the public can rest easy as the scales of Justice are once again set right on their gimbals.

Fast forward to today, with such shows dominating the TV viewing audience.  “CSI” (and its many incarnations), “Law & Order” (and its many incarnations), and a myriad of homicide and courtroom dramas have conditioned us all to a few extremely misleading and dangerous mandates regarding the quest for justice.   There is an ever-growing and alarming trend in this society.  With such an increase in daily TV viewing, coupled with more and more reality-TV afoot…it is becoming more and more difficult for people to discern reality from fiction.

Thanks to television, we now have the following rules for court justice:

1)    As in a TV drama, the first and most obvious suspect NEVER is ultimately the guilty party.

2)    It’s always the one you least suspect.

3)    Police, with their erroneous and suspicious motivations, are never on target with their investigation. (more…)

One news item that was mostly lost in the holiday weekend shuffle was that the Los Angeles Police Department has solicited celebrities to use twitter to spread the word about the closure of a prominent freeway.  The story was already pretty funny, then Kim Kardashian tweeted the wrong information… twice.  From Fox News:

What did California law enforcement expect when they enlisted celebrities to help warn the public of the impending closure of a major freeway?

Probably not this.

Kim Kardashian, one of several celebrities with Twitter followings in the millions, was asked by the L.A.P.D to warn her followers of the impending highway closure.

Kardashian complied, tweeting on Friday: “Remember this weekend the 405 Fwy is gonna be closed between the San Fernando Valley and the West Side!!”

Just one problem. The closure is in two weeks.

So the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star tried to correct her mistake, tweeting: “Remember next weekend the 405 Fwy is gonna be closed between the San Fernando Valley and the West Side!!”

Wrong again.

Kardashian erased both initial Twitter messages and finally got it right: “Stay away from the 405 Fwy the weekend of July 16 & 17, it will be closed btwn the 10 Fwy and 101 Fwy North & South!”

Oh. My. Gawd.

My data isn’t fresh on this, but there was a time not long ago where the stretch of 405 freeway between the 10 and 101 was the single most trafficked road in the United States.  Shutting that down for a couple of days is like blocking off L.A.’s pulmonary artery; it just can’t function without it.  So, if the city is going to try to temporarily block it off, they can’t afford any mistakes. (more…)

In the original Rocky movie Rocky tells Adrian he boxes because he can’t sing or dance. I can identify. After twenty-six years as an FBI agent, I now write because I can’t sing or dance. Throughout my career, criminal defense attorneys accused me of being a great fiction writer, referring to the affidavits I filed against their clients. In retirement, I thought I’d put those so-called fiction writing skills to good use.

“Targets Down“ (B&H Publishing), my second novel in the Matt Hogan series is now available. Publisher’s Weekly called my debut novel, “Enemies Among Us,” ”a page-turning roller coaster that feels like Jack Bauer’s 24 without sailing over the top.” Actor/producer Jack Scalia read an advance copy of TARGETS DOWN and liked it so much he optioned it. Mark Roemmich of Noble House Entertainment Pictures is writing the screenplay.

Much of my career was spent undercover so it makes sense Matt Hogan, my alter-ego, would be an undercover FBI agent…only younger, better looking, and with more hair than I have. Although fiction, I want to give the reader a realistic look at the FBI and what undercover work really entails. Hollywood seldom gets it right and too often our perception is only what we see on the big screen. 

As in many undercover assignments, where you begin is not where you finish. As I’ve discussed at Big Peace, I was undercover for three years in Operation Smoking Dragon. It began with Chinese manufactured counterfeit cigarettes but lead to nearly pure crystal meth, ecstasy, the North Korean Super Note, a $60 million surface-to-air missile deal, even former Russian intelligence agents selling me stolen cars. In TARGETS DOWN, Matt finds twists and turns as he seeks to find who killed two people and critically wounded an FBI agent’s wife.

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From the Associated Press:

The troubled actress didn’t admit to stealing a $2,500 necklace last February, but her no contest plea does go on her record as a conviction.

Ending the Unholy Alliance

An unholy alliance evolved over the last decade among search companies, ad serving companies, credit card companies and rogue websites.  People seeking illegal digital property use unfiltered search engines to find it, ad serving companies facilitate users by serving ads to these search pages and to rogue sites, and credit card companies facilitate the sale of illegal content subscriptions. 

The adservers and credit card companies split their revenue with the rogue sites.  Everyone makes money efficiently–except the people who create the stuff that’s being ripped off, whether its movies, music, high fashion or pharmaceuticals. This is hardly a level playing field.  But criticize the unholy alliance, and you’ll be demeaned as a shill or worse.

Missing from this cash machine?  Responsibility.  Like Sergeant Schultz, nobody sees nothing—nod nod wink wink—rogue sites are all someone else’s fault, and that someone always seems to be a couple steps outside the law in China, the Ukraine or somewhere from which they reach the valuable US market without the burden of US laws.  This unholy alliance is a serious economic attack—large commercial interests that are global, well funded and cagey.

Should online property rights be different that offline property rights?

Nobody likes the idea of the government seizing private property, but nobody likes having their property stolen, either.  The point is to help create a level playing field to encourage the launch of legitimate services which in turn support the jobs of those who produce the legitimate goods. 

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With the recent unjust imprisonments of famed Iranian directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, the world finally seems to be coming to terms with the Islamist regime’s rank inhumanity toward its best and brightest and is taking a stand. At the upcoming Academy Awards, Hollywood’s own top creative film artists will be wearing white ribbons in support of the two laureled filmmakers. For many of them, this most recent campaign to free Jafar Panahi on the very heels of campaigning for his freedom from Evin prison last April and May must make it all seem like a nightmarish Groundhog Day.

In truth, it is. The various Islamist regimes of Iran have been at total war with their Hollywood for a very long time now. In 2001 director Tahmineh Milani was sentenced to death for her film The Hidden Half, and well after approval for general release by the regime’s religious censors. Only international and heated domestic outrage spared Tahmineh’s life. Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese were howling back then too, as was the Academy. In February 2007, documentarian Mehrnoushe Solouki was thrown into the hell of Evin for the crime of stumbling across a regime mass grave during a shoot. Again, only international pressure freed her from her now-recurring nightmare.

SSDD in Iran’s film industry. Consider yourself lucky if you only get the McCarthy treatment. But the regime doesn’t stop its war on film and filmmakers at its borders. Last June, suspected Iranian operatives kidnapped exiled filmmaker and regime nemesis Daryush Shokof in Cologne, Germany for daring to screen his film Iran Zendan (Iran Prison), a brutal reenactment of the rape and torture of Green protesters inside an Iranian prison. Again, only international heat and intense pressure from the German government somehow made Mr. Shokof magically reappear on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne soaked, dazed and incoherent after twelve days missing.

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The criminal trial of Howard K. Stern in the events connected to the death of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith took a surprising twist Thursday. Stern, Smith’s former lover and lawyer, walked out of a Los Angeles courtroom essentially scott free.  Smith’s psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, received $100 in fines, a reduction from a felony to a misdemeanor charge, and one year of unsupervised probation.  Stern walked out of court and immediately spoke with media – blaming the prosecution for being dishonest.

After a two month long trial and 13 days of deliberation, the jury found Stern guilty on two felony counts.  Both counts involved conspiracy charges of acting fraudulently to obtain prescriptions and using false names to acquire medication for Smith. Eroshevich was similarly charged with conspiracy as well as aiding to furnish sedatives and opiates to an addict.

While this may be a good day for Stern, this sentencing is a slap in the face to the jury who spent a grueling two weeks deliberating in order to reach a fair, thoughtful verdict.  Judge Robert Perry acted unusually throughout the proceedings. He claims there is not enough evidence proving Stern intended to break the law.  That excuse doesn’t even work for speeders on a long stretch of rural road, it certainly shouldn’t work for a man who admitted to falsifying names in order to get his girlfriend drugs that ultimately killed her.  This is truly a disappointment for justice.

Once again celebrity wrongdoers get special treatment.  Numerous testimonies verified Stern’s involvement in Smith’s medical management.  Smith’s bodyguard, former nannies, and G. Ben Thompson, another of Smith’s former lovers, all testified to seeing Stern bring Smith pills on separate occasions.  He even had multiple prescriptions for her under his own name! (more…)

When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were heard. They were black, they were white, they were Irish, they were Polish, they were Catholic, they were Jews, they were one. That’s what a union is: one… 

Why it’s a left-wing film

Set in the Deep South, director Martin Ritt’s “Norma Rae” is yet another Hollywood entry that gushes over the selfless virtues of Big Labor and demonizes both the corporation and the individuals who would prefer not to be forced into the Borg Collective. White collar management is naturally made up of bullies who tap phones and work an old man literally to death and the “exploited workers” themselves who oppose being community-organized are motivated primarily by racial bigotry and the ignorant belief that unions are nothing more than a New York, communist conspiracy run by the Jooooozzzz…

In other words, there are no intelligent or sound arguments allowed from the other side. Everything is presented — both literally and figuratively — in the simplest of black and white terms, and this includes religion. In an important scene laced with the symbolism of having a man of the cloth paint over the black porch railing leading into his church with whiter than white paint, the spiritual center of the town is revealed as racist. This insidious message ends up being a major turning point in the character of Norma Rae (Sally Field), for she sees the light and quits the congregation, her spiritual home since childhood.  

The story is based on real-life union activist Crystal Lee Sutton, who reportedly did bring the North Carolina textile mill she was working at to a stop and won the day for the union when, in a final act of defiance after being fired, she stood on her work table and held over her head a piece of cardboard with the word “UNION” scrawled on it. This moment, reproduced in “Norma Rae,” would become one of the most iconic scenes in the history of cinema. (more…)

What would we ever do without the Hollywood left, especially Michael Moore (and, of course, Keith Olbermann), and his special way of setting off a firestorm every time he opens his mouth.  For such a tolerant leftist, he is short on sympathy for women–especially rape victims.  In an interview with Olbermann, Moore calls the rape case against WikiLeak’s founder Julian Assange “a bunch of hooey” as seen here:

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However, Moore’s outrageous comments completely dismissing the alleged rapes have raised the ire of many, setting off a Twitter firestorm, fueled by Tiger Beatdown blogger Sady Doyle who started the Twitter hashtag #mooreandme.  Doyle doesn’t stop there, and hauls off on Moore in her piece:

So, here are some cheerful statistics for you: According to RAINN, about 60% of rapes aren’t reported. In those cases, there’s about a 51% chance that the 40% of reported rapes will have an arrest made. There’s an 80% chance of prosecution. And, given various factors including conviction and sentencing, there’s only about a 16.3% chance that someone who commits rape will serve time for that rape. Meaning:  If we factor in the rapes that go unreported, only 6% of rapists ever serve time. EVER. …

He’s put $20,000 hard, cashy dollars on the line, so that Julian Assange, white male left-wing darling, will be able to get out on bail despite posing a substantial and acknowledged flight risk, and despite the fact that he evidently is working to avoid facing the charges of his accusers. And why is that? Well, as per Michael Moore’s lengthy diatribe on the subject, which contains exactly one paragraph about the rape charges, his reasoning is as follows:

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In movies like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, neighbors inform the police about serious crimes against the State like subversion and book possession. In real America, people call 911 because McDonald’s has run out of McNuggets.

We’ve grown accustomed to hearing about people using police to rectify situations that used to be done with simple human interaction. So we shouldn’t be surprised, when a daughter of America’s most prominent conservative advances to the finals of a dance contest and some people petition the government for a redress of jitterbug. Though no action was taken by the government, according to a Smoking Gun article there were numerous emails and letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the move of Bristol into the final round of Dancing With The Stars.

The FCC grew out of the FRC, which was established in 1927 only to assign radio frequencies and licenses. But giving the Federal Government a little authority is like giving a gremlin a snack after midnight. Since then, the FCC has moved into a much more powerful position, determining what content can be transmitted on the “public” airwaves, and insuring that the voices heard are as diverse as an NPR Kwanzaa Party.

With the assorted class action suit commercials advertised on late night TV, people today are encouraged to collect settlements on damages they didn’t even realize they incurred. A recent law was passed  turning down the volume of commercials, an arduous task that heretofore required reaching all the way over to the coffee table and picking up the remote. So why wouldn’t Leftists appeal to the FCC to handle their dirty work against Bristol Palin and others?  

There have been numerous calls for the FCC to suspend the licenses of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, two entities that do not require FCC licenses. The Party who thinks requiring proof of US citizenship in order to vote qualifies as a constitutional violation wants FCC licenses for Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. (more…)

#5: The George Romero Zombie Quadrilogy (1968–2005)

The fact that I have no idea how to pronounce “quadrilogy” certainly wasn’t going to stop me from whipping out a two dollar word in order to cheat all four of The Mighty George Romero’s epic zombie films onto this here countdown. And now, to the all-important instructions…

1. You gotta find a guilt-free day, and by that I mean a day where you can justify and live with the selfish decision to take the phone off the hook, close the curtains, lock the doors, give real life the high hard middle finger, and plant yourself in front of the television for ten-hours of hardcore movie watching (or as it’s known at my house: Every Day).  

2. This day should be scheduled as close to Halloween as possible and preferably take place when weather conditions outside are at their worst (those of you living in Los Angeles should wait for smog alerts or a race riot).

3. To keep interruptions to a minimum, plenty of refreshments should be close by and the catheter inserted thusly.   

You can’t watch just one George Romero zombie movie. It’s Halloween. It’s George Romero. It’s zombies. Yes, there’s the risk of an Awesome Overdose (especially at the sight of Dennis Hopper) but that’s why you have emergency procedures in place; someone trained to yell “CLEAR!” and kill the Bliss Buzz by reciting George Clooney’s Oscar acceptance speech.  But you have to give yourself this one full day to be completely immersed into the uniquely horrifying experience of living in Romero’s cleverly constructed and always entertaining zombie apocalypse, a world where the flesh-hungry dead walk the earth, anti-heroes become heroes, and there’s enough blood and guts to make Quincy vomit. (more…)

I get a lot of calls to my radio show asking if someone can use “classical” music in a film or podcast or something without permission since it’s so old. Seasoned listeners to Barely Legal Radio know that you can use the composition because it is in the public domain if it is from the classical period (1550 to 1900?) but you must get permission to use copyrighted recordings of these, or any works, regardless of whether they are in the public domain. Somehow this doesn’t sit well with some people.

According to Richard Esguerra from The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a group is “doing something about this “problem. The organization “Musopen” is raising money from “philanthropists” to create high quality digital recordings of works from masters such as Beethoven and Brahms so that they can “generously” donate these recordings to the public domain so that no one will have to worry about licensing recordings of them ever again.

Does this sound nice to you? If it does, you are forgetting one thing.You are forgetting that if these recordings have some commercial value it creates a market for them which not only employs musicians, it encourages better and better recordings and orchestrations that benefit all of society. Destroy their commercial value, and you destroy a lot more than you realize. (more…)

The last thing I was worrying about was that The Other Guys would be too preachy.  Sure, Will Ferrell has a long history of deep, thought-provoking critiques of society and culture, so that should have been my big concern.  Also subtitles.  And having the last shot of the film be the word “Fin” superimposed over the freeze-framed image of a crying child alone on a beach symbolizing death or something. 

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You know, sometimes you just want to go, have a drink or two, or three, or ten, and then sit in a movie theater and tune out the seemingly endless parades of nimrods, pinkos and sanctimonious deadbeats who make up so much of our society today.  You just want some guys to come on the screen and to do and say some funny stuff.  Maybe you want an explosion or two, perhaps a gratuitous shower scene – strike that, as shower scenes are never gratuitous.  Unless it’s a dude.  Or Kathy Bates.

The point is the last thing you want after a Dos XX prep and handing over $11.75 each for yourself and your life partner/designated driver is for a bunch of Hollywood half-wits to stop the fun to give you a PowerPoint briefing on their insights into modern politics – without even the PowerPoint.  And it appears that this is exactly what The Other Guys intends to do. (more…)

The timing of today’s announcement from the Swiss that fugitive director Roman Polanski will not face extradition to the United States coming just a couple days after we all witnessed Hollywood’s reaction to the audio tape of Mel Gibson’s raging, racist rant is fitting. What an interesting opportunity for a side-by-side look at Leftist Hollywood’s values.

It’s unlikely that anyone who’s considered a serious part of the Hollywood community will openly work with Mel Gibson again for a long, long time — if ever. WME, his agency, announced they had dropped him as a client within minutes of the release of the recording, and courtesy of the L.A. Times, the warning has already gone out making clear that anyone foolish enough to work with Gibson again will pay a heavy price:

There’s little chance he’ll land at another agency anytime soon — signing would bring down a horrible avalanche of bad PR to any agency that got within smelling distance and, more to the craven point, any agent that signs him has little hope of booking him any roles anyway since there isn’t a studio in town that will hire Gibson.

So toxic is the “Braveheart” director that the L.A. Times also “suggested” that now would be a “good time” for Tinseltowners to loudly and proudly condemn the former superstar, and a special point was made to single out his longtime friend Jodie Foster (who just finished directing a film that stars Gibson): (more…)

This Is Not A Gun, it’s a painting, and it too-does not kill people.